How to Train Yourself (and your Dog) Not to Jump on People

We all love our dogs, but let’s be frank: Greeting visitors is an embarrassing nightmare when your over eager dog is jumping all over the place.

Not only can jumping up be embarrassing, it can also be dangerous when your 93 pound great aunt visits with her cane and your slobbering greeting committee comes charging toward the door. Let’s talk about how to train your dog not to jump on people.

But I Don’t Need Training, My Dog Does!

What’s that you say? You thought this was a dog training site, not a people training site? You are correct. But this is one of those areas where your reaction to your dog is crucial.
If you’re like me, I used to get pretty excited when I came home and my dog was so excited to see me. Who wouldn’t be?!
My dog would come running and jump on my leg and i would get all excited holler her name and scratch her behind the ears. That’s a fun way to come home!
Then we had company come over.
Then we had kids.

How to Train Your Dog Not to Jump on People

It was time to change. When you have little babies and wobbly toddlers around, you can’t have your out of control 4 legged buddy bouncing off the walls anymore.
I had to give up those great door greetings. But it was totally worth it. We still get to have fun, just not right away.
Here’s the plan:

Physical Separation: Until you and your dog get this figured out, its best to physically separate your dog from greetings when you know you have company. You can use a crate or just another room in the house. We used a crate that still had a line of sight to the front door.

Train Yourself: This was the hard part for me. When you come home, you need to keep it low key. Remember your dog will always match your energy. If your dog jumps up on you, you have to ignore her. Not only that, you should turn the other way. If this is too hard at first, consider crating your dog while you are gone. Then you have more control of the greeting.

Use the Sit Command: You don’t need to think of a new command to keep your dog from jumping up. If your dog knows Sit, use that command when you greet your dog. The good part is that when your dog does sit, you get to reward her with praise and treats.

The Happy Ending

You might think that sounds too simple, but it works if your dog knows the Sit Command well.